Top Blog Partners

Ozil’s transfer comments mean Arsenal could lose him

There are two years left to run on the Arsenal contract of Mesut Ozil, with the German international star having signed up for five years when he joined the Gunners from Real Madrid three years ago. Those three years have seen Arsenal break the trophy drought with back to back FA cup wins, but last season was once again a barren one in terms of glory, unless you count the Community Shield.

It was even harder for Arsenal fans to take as there seemed to be a door left open by our Premier League rivals to finally regain the title after 12 years of waiting since that amazing unbeaten season from the invincibles. So this year will make it 13 years and that could be unlucky for all of us if Arsenal come up short again, because I have a feeling that Ozil will not be willing to sign a contract extension if we are not crowned champions, despite the fact that Wenger seems relaxed about him accepting a new deal.

Maybe he would if he thought that Arsenal would eventually do it, but from his words reported by Metro this week it sounds to me as though the play maker is getting as tired of Arsene Wenger’s penny pinching ways in the transfer market as most of us fans.

The German said, ‘This decision is not with me, but the coach and the management.

‘Of course, we all watch as the other teams strengthen and get (to a higher level) in the league. But it’s not my job to occupy myself with it. I want to play my football and the team as best I can help.’

‘I already know Granit from the Bundesliga, which I follow regularly. He brings an enormous quality and even more potential.

‘With Granit we’re all surprised and excited. We are fortunate that he chose Arsenal.’

It is clear that Ozil was very happy with the signing of Xhaka but like the rest of us he appears to have been hoping for a lot more. There is still time for Wenger to act, of course, but if he doesn’t and then our squad is proven to be not up to the task of finishing top of the pile, can you see our midfield star accepting it and staying in north London?

The above article contains a link to the Metro article, this in turn contains a link to the original article in spox. This appears to be iin the form of a question and answer session, but unfortunately is in german. Is there anyone on this site with good enough german to tell us what ozil actually said.

Metro is well known to take selective quotes to make a story out of nothing.

I have looked on spox livestreams which gives an article in english dated 10 aug 2016, and appears to be based on the same interview used by metro. This gives a completely different view.

Here is one quote “All the clubs have invested heavily, not only on world-class players, but also on world-class coaches that have been brought into the league. All teams have improved and I am looking forward to measuring myself against the best players in the world and being able to prove myself against them.”

As I said above, can anyone give us an objective view on what ozil actually said.

Yeh, that’s pretty much exactly what he said. When asked about transfers for Arsenal he said how impressed everyone was by Xhaka and said that it isn’t up to him or his concern what other transfers Arsenal should/could go for (it’s up to management and trainer), his only focus is on doing the best he can for his team. He rounded it off with saying his goal is always to win trophies and he is yet to get the PL or CL trophies when asked about goals. He also said that he feels fit after a couple of recent hard trainings and is ready to play as soon as his manager wants (I suspect Wenger will start him after Liverpool).

i’m from swiss and so german is one of my native language, if this is the true interview in german then what he said means this:
SPOX: Durch den TV-Vertrag sind eine Menge großartiger Spieler im Sommer in die Premier League gewechselt. Erwarten Sie ein deutlich höheres Niveau als in den Vorjahren?

Translation: A lot of great player were brought into the league through the new TV-deals, do you expect a higher level than the previous years?

Mesut Özil: Absolutely, the clubs have invested heavily, not only world-class players, but also world-class coaches have been brought into the league. All teams have improved and I am looking forward to measuring myself every week against the best players in the world and to prove myself against them.

so jonm your translation is absolutely right.. this article is basically bull….

‘Of course, we all watch as the other teams strengthen and get (to a higher level) in the league. But it’s not my job to occupy myself with it. I want to play my football and the team as best I can help.’

not that you misunderstand me he DID say that, but he said it more like that he is a player and it isn’t his duties, but not in a very bad way.. pretty normal and sensible

Wenger didn’t care when Van Perse or Fabregas openly said that they were going to leave unless he strengthened the squad so why would he care what Ozil or Sanchez have to say. Like the other two that left for trophies, Ozil and Sanchez will do the same, it’s only a matter of time.

Ozil was not really needed.
We needed Higuain.
If Arsenal had not lost to Villa
on opening day Ozil would not have
been bought and Wenger would have
said Sanogo and Flamini were enough.
To me Wenger believes football fans are irrelevant.
Its like Kroenke who believes fans are just financial units in his business.
Wenger has given 3,000 interviews at Arsenal but never
actually said any thing in any one of those interviews.
Its all mumbo jumbo because he believes fans are not worth talking to.
For Wenger its about his own goals. Fans are meaningless.
So why communicate with nobodies.
After the Invincibles in ’04 Wenger believed
he was God and should answer to no one.
Then Mourinho traumatized him in ’05+’06.
Wenger retreated into a fantasy world for 3 years talking
unadulterated nonsense about higher football values and God knows what.
Mourinho described Wenger as a voyeur looking at people through a telescope.
While Wenger was in the clouds Ferguson met the challenge of Mou
head on and proceeded to win 3more EPL titles in a row.
Kroenke saved Wenger in ’09 by requiring Wenger
to do no more than make top 4 but never challenge for the title.
Fans pain of 12 years with out the trophy mean nothing to Wenger or Kroenke.
Their own agendas are far more important.
Wenger claims that he alone built the stadium.
He keeps players who are clearly injury wrecks or useless
while refusing to buy players who could win us the title
because he says there are no players in the world available.
Going for the title would raise expectations which if not met would
lead to disappointment and possible dismissal.
Top 4, an 8 mill salary and job for life is far more appealing
and who cares a damn about the fans dreams of winning the title.

Frank, in summer 2011, fabregas was determined to leave and at the same time we sold nasri. Accounts for that year show profit from player sales of £65.5m and overall profit £36.6m. In other words, without selling top players and not replacing them we would have made a financial loss. Plus of course there was the reduced wage bill.

The following year RVP, with a year left on his contract, refused to sign a new contract and was sold, apparently much against wengers will.

It was down to stadium debt, I am sure wenger would have wanted to keep all three but finances did not allow it, given the boards policy on finances.

I feel bad for our world class stars that deserve trophies but are let down by the club. The problem is not the money, the problem is the manager, he ignores the position which needs most strengthening, I believe we needed a striker more than we needed Xhaka. But anyway, even with all this frustration, I wish the boys all the best in this upcoming season. May the best team win. COYG

Ugabooga, that’s easy, because they’re so many stupid little tw@ts who only bicker moan and disrespect because that is as far as their IQ will take them, making it impossible for the average+ intelligence to side with them.

Only in the eyes of the disagreeing part is a side stupid. We’re in our forth season ‘freed from the economical shackles of Emirates’, or as Kroenke puts it: ‘fourth season of financing my ranch’. The ranch cost him (arsenal) $200M or even more. That’s where the war chest went

You get the impression from Arsene that the more pressure people put on him the less inclined he will be to act. I don’t know this to be certain but it is the impression I get. So I don’t think it would be a good idea for Wenger’s own players to tell him how to run things, he hates it when journalists do it, and pundits, so I’m thinking it would not be a good idea. However, Jonm has pointed out how this is just bull crap from metro, and Wenger will know this because he speaks German and works with Ozil.

Trevor, this is the usual rubbish from metro and as you say, ozil is very unlikely to tell wenger how to run things. The concern that most of us seem to have is that ozil, sanchez and other top players will not sign new contracts because arsenal do not seem to be aiming to win the PL. That of course is why metro publish these made up articles, it feeds in to our concerns so we read them.

Our fears may be unfounded or very real, we will find out over the coming season with regard to ozil and sanchez.

I think that at the end of last season we stood at a crossroads, dip in to cash reserves and buy the players we needed, or not do so and continue with increasing cash reserves and making a profit. Kroenke made his choice then, not to build the complete PL winning team. Will Kroenke/wenger buy the players we need in the next two weeks? I have my doubts.